“Pfft!” The lead trainer spat out a mouthful of blood as he was launched backward like a cannonball.
His chest visibly caved in from the impact.
Boom!
His body skidded across the ground, carving a deep trench before finally coming to a stop.
“B-Boss!” The others hurried over to support him, frantically pulling out various healing medicines.
Because humanity constantly fought ferocious beasts, medical technology in this era had become remarkably advanced.
An attack that would normally shatter ribs only required a couple of bottles of medicine here before the injured person could stand up and move around as if nothing had happened.
“Who…
who are you?” The man’s expression darkened as he stared at Lucas , who was slowly walking toward them.
His body tensed instinctively.
The fact that this man had ordered Rhyhorn to charge without the slightest hesitation proved one thing— He didn’t care about their lives at all.
Lucas ignored them completely and walked straight over to Claire Reed.
“You’re alone?” he asked calmly.
His sudden appearance seemed to give Claire Reed an overwhelming sense of security.
Before she could even answer, the tears she had been desperately holding back poured out in streams.
Lucas ‘s eyelid twitched.
He had absolutely no experience comforting girls.
So instead, he turned toward the group behind him.
The men instinctively took several steps back, their expressions growing even darker.
“Are you really planning to interfere in our business?” Lucas looked at them with the same expression one might use toward someone hopelessly stupid.
Were these people actually idiots?
Hadn’t he already made his intentions perfectly obvious?
“Ready?” he asked while casually rolling his shoulders.
“So you’re determined to stick your nose into this?” one of them sneered.
“Your Rhyhorn might be strong, but there are eight of us.
Do you seriously think one person can beat all eight?” The trainers glared coldly at Lucas as they released their Pokémon one after another.
Eight Pokémon appeared simultaneously.
Most were between Levels 5 and 9.
The strongest was the leader’s Level 10 Exeggcute.
For a moment, their combined presence became quite imposing.
Seeing the lineup, Claire Reed finally stopped crying.
She nervously tugged at Lucas ‘s sleeve.
“Are…
are you sure you can win?” Lucas glanced at her before smiling faintly.
“Isn’t it already over?” The eight trainers laughed coldly, assuming he was bluffing.
They immediately prepared to command their Pokémon— Only to realize…
None of them responded.
Turning around, they froze.
Every one of their Pokémon had rolled its eyes back and collapsed into a deep sleep.
“W-What’s going on?” They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Their entire team…
Had been neutralized without anyone noticing?
A sinister laugh echoed from the shadows.
“Hehehehe…” Gastly slowly floated into view.
A Level 20, Two-Star Pokémon with Rare aptitude dealing with eight Pokémon that hadn’t even reached Two-Star—and were mostly Common or Elite aptitude—was simply effortless.
Especially for a Ghost-type like Gastly, whose movements were naturally elusive.
As long as the enemy failed to notice it, defeating eight opponents…
Or even twice that number…
Would be child’s play.
It merely required casting Hypnosis a few more times.
“Teach them a lesson.” “Gastly…
Night Shade.” At Lucas ‘s command, dense black mist exploded outward from Gastly’s body, swallowing every trainer and Pokémon within it.
Only moments later, horrifying screams began echoing from inside the darkness.
No one knew what they had witnessed.
When the mist finally dispersed…
Every trainer lay sprawled across the ground.
Their eyes were vacant.
Drool dripped from the corners of their mouths.
They looked completely broken.
Claire Reed covered her mouth in astonishment.
She had known Lucas possessed a Two-Star Pokémon.
But she had never imagined…
He had been hiding two more Pokémon all this time.
That meant…
He actually possessed three Pokémon by himself.
Just who…
was this person?
Gastly defeated Bellsprout!
Gained 69 EXP!
Gastly defeated Weedle!
Gained 66 EXP!
Gastly defeated Ledyba!
Gained 72 EXP!
Gastly defeated Murkrow!
Gained 89 EXP!
…
Gastly defeated Exeggcute!
Gained 179 EXP!
After the eighth notification appeared, Lucas noticed a brilliant light surrounding Gastly.
At last…
Gastly had reached Level 21 (5/20000 EXP)!
It had broken through the Two-Star rank…
And entered the Three-Star realm!
Suddenly— A dramatic transformation began.
Gastly’s spherical, gaseous body started breaking apart before everyone’s eyes.
The purple mist thickened, swirling together as if reconstructing an entirely new body.
Lucas ‘s heart immediately raced.
Was it…
Evolving?
Pokémon evolution on Azure Blue Star differed slightly from the original games.
Evolution wasn’t guaranteed.
According to the information provided by the Eye of Insight, aptitude influenced not only a Pokémon’s combat strength, but also its chance of evolving.
Common aptitude Pokémon only had a 10% success rate.
Elite aptitude Pokémon had 30%.
Rare aptitude Pokémon had 60%.
Only pseudo-legendary aptitude and above possessed a 100% evolution rate.
Now that Gastly had entered an evolution state…
It meant one thing.
His Rare aptitude Gastly had won the sixty-percent gamble.
When the light faded…
Gastly opened its eyes once more.
Its appearance had changed dramatically.
The floating ball of gas had become a larger body with distinct hands and spiky “hair.” Its once pale fangs had transformed into sharp purple ghostly teeth that blended directly into its spectral body.
“Gaaaast!” Gastly had successfully evolved into Haunter!
Haunter learned Shadow Punch!
Haunter learned Smog!
Haunter learned Toxic!
Immediately after evolving, Haunter mastered three new moves.
Haunter Level 21 (Three-Star Pokémon) Aptitude: Rare Type: Ghost / Poison Ability: Levitate Moves: …
Shadow Punch, Smog, Toxic Shadow Punch was a move every Gastly naturally learned upon evolving into Haunter.
Using its ghostly shadow fists, it struck with incredible speed, making the attack extremely difficult to evade.
Smog and Toxic, meanwhile, were Poison-type techniques.
As both a Ghost- and Poison-type Pokémon, Gastly had somehow failed to learn any Poison-type moves before evolving.
Lucas had once wondered whether he’d been feeding it improperly.
Now it seemed…
The timing simply hadn’t arrived yet.
After praising the newly evolved Haunter for a while, Lucas recalled it into its Poké Ball before turning toward Claire Reed.
“What do you want to do with these people?” Claire Reed hated them deeply.
Even so, her kind-hearted nature prevented her from seeking cruel revenge.
Since the victim herself had no intention of retaliating excessively, Lucas naturally wouldn’t overstep.
He simply confiscated all of their evaluation points before leaving them for the trial supervisors to deal with.
The organizers already had a comprehensive punishment system in place for incidents like this.
Once reported, these people would be permanently banned from participating in future advancement examinations.
On top of that…
A lengthy prison sentence awaited them.
“By the way,” Lucas asked casually, “how did you end up wandering around by yourself?” Truthfully, he wasn’t particularly close to Claire Reed.
The two of them had barely exchanged a few words before today.
Helping her had simply been a spur-of-the-moment decision.